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Romney Will Participate in Monday Debate

GREENVILLE, S.C. — After a high-stakes game of chicken between Mitt Romney and NBC News over whether he would participate in the next debate, Mr. Romney blinked.

He said Saturday that he would participate in the event next Monday in Tampa, Fla. The debate is being co-hosted by the National Journal and The Tampa Bay Times. Until now Mr. Romney had been noncommittal, saying that the string of back-to-back debates was too much. (There were two this week alone.)

Florida is the next state to hold a primary, on Jan. 31.

Mr. Romney’s senior strategists have made no secret of their displeasure with the number of debates, likening them to a carnival that has gone on too long. Monday’s debate will be the 17th in which Mr. Romney has appeared.

He had been sending strong signals to NBC News that he did not want to take part. And on Friday, the debate planners had no idea whether he was in or out. Some uncertainty arose on Friday when news outlets reported that NBC’s Monday evening schedule still showed its regular slate of programming.

In a campaign appearance here as voters were heading to the polls, Mr. Romney said, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be doing the debate on Monday. Yeah, I’m in.”

Skipping the debate, especially if he does not win the South Carolina primary, could have been seized on by his rivals as a sign of timidity — an argument some of them were already preparing to make. Newt Gingrich, whose sudden rise in the polls has threatened Mr. Romney’s front-runner status, said Friday: “Romney can’t claim that he’s prepared to debate Obama when he’s not prepared to debate me. It would become a running joke.”

It is worth noting that at this point in the election calendar in 2008, there had been 16 televised Republican debates.

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